Bradley Gibson

Her responses and her journey, set alongside her own art, give a unique perspective on that meditation as well as to the crucial importance of art to document our time, to share experiences, and to enhance the quality of life.

Trier has created a masterwork, with layers of human drama and frailty (on a budget of less than $8M), soaring to the heights of unearned optimism only to crash into the inevitably of mortality.

Mother Mary is an art film at its core, and will not suit everyone’s palette, but for the audience it connects with, there’s a beautiful journey from sorrow to confession and possible absolution.

Highest 2 Lowest is brilliant filmmaking done as only Spike Lee can.

For fans of Breaking Bad, it’s a satisfying return to and continuation of the story.

Scheinert adroitly conveys both the pathos and the humor of the situation. As dumb as the main characters are, the film itself is very clever.

The suspense in Tailgate is cringe-inducing. Crijns keeps his foot on the gas for the entire runtime, artfully ensuring that neither the victims nor the audience ever gets a moment to breathe. Even with a premise we’ve seen before, this film delivers right up to the credits and beyond.

Haynes carefully navigates the risky terrain of presenting real people (who are still among us) and facts in a scripted feature film, artfully blurring the lines between documentary and drama.

Remembering Gene Wilder is a beautiful, affectionate, albeit brief, biography of an actor who was adored by all.

The filmmaker plays with our assumptions around justice and race. While A Lot of Nothing uses elements ripped from the headlines, in this context, what you expect to come from it will say more about you than it does the script. The revelation of the final act changes everything that has gone before. Hang onto the edge of your seat for a wickedly entertaining ride.

The dark comedy is subtle, but hilarious. Serious topics bubble up from masterful situational humor.

Miller has hinted that this may be the last adventure set in the wasteland, and if that’s true, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a powerful swan song to Furiosa, Max, and all the denizens of that blasted, delightful place.

Mapantsula is timely and relevant 35 years later.

Coming Clean is an indictment of capitalism run rampant, and, once again, profit taking precedence over human life. Hats off to the frontline warriors taking on this cause.

The performances of the three leads and all of the cast are all solid and authentic. The film looks and sounds great.

Lacôte’s second directorial feature, Night of the Kings, is an epically ambitious undertaking, roaring along on several parallel tracks, with a dizzying number of sub-stories to track. The world inside MACA prison is a complex, layered cultural and political system.

Director May El-Toukhy paints an engaging, uncompromising film in bold strokes, never looking away or shrinking from Anne’s boldness to act on her desires, or her willingness to remorselessly do whatever she must to restore the status quo of her life.

In Santos – Skin to Skin, Golden weaves Santos’ colorful life story around Afro-Caribbean music to engaging effect.

You get the feeling that if your party was dragging when Nadim arrived, she’d be your DJ and get the energy up. This film is that same kind of electric jump-start vision of the life of an extraordinary individual. It’s clear that Nadim is just getting started.

Usually, films of plays are dull things. Limited access to camera angles, bad sound, lighting that doesn’t work for the movie camera. Theater and film are (appropriately) distinct media. Enter Spike Lee. He’s a master craftsman and his skills are as relevant as ever. Lee made use of all those potential disadvantages to inform his cinematic vision and encapsulate the stage performance into a striking moving picture.

Superb acting by all the leads and supporting players populate the desolate landscape with human dramas large and small in a place where people scrape a living out of harsh conditions.

Yardie is a ripping classic gangster tale done right, but that’s only part of the appeal. It goes beyond the narrative into full cultural immersion with music as the window into a time and place.

The filmmaker educates and entertains with a profoundly human story about the life of a young woman. Viewers will become invested in what happens to Di and learn about the Hmong tradition along the way.

The pace is tight, and the film’s last scene is a fantastic conclusion to the story: a little bit Telenovela, a little bit grindhouse, and 100% quality.

This doc rocks as much as the old rock rocks. Do yourself a favor and make some time for it.

American Doctor is a horrifying film to watch, but that’s the point.

The Friend’s House is Here provides an instructive window into the challenges of life in Tehran, as well as an opportunity for Westerners to share these moments and empathize with the people there.

Crime 101 will get your pulse pounding on a wild ride.